NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

BRUSSELS: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warmly re-welcomed Tuesday the opening of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) - NATO regional center in Kuwait last month in January, saying it is an important platform for enhanced cooperation with the Gulf countries.

"I very much welcome that we established recently the regional center in Kuwait which provides an excellent platform for enhanced cooperation and also support capacity building for different partner countries in the region which is an important tool to fight terrorism," he told a news conference ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

He noted that the 28-member Alliance is working with countries in the Gulf region to address the challenges in the region itself. The ICI, launched in 2004, aims to boost cooperation between NATO and four Gulf countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE.

Stoltenberg said NATO has played a key role in the fight against terrorism for many years, in particular in Afghanistan. The reason that NATO  decided to stay in Afghanistan with 13,000 troops is to  train assist and advise Afghan troops to enable them to fight terrorism, he said.  "The best weapon to fight terrorism is to train local forces to enable them to fight terrorism," he stressed.

Stoltenberg briefed media here today on the agenda of this week's meetings of NATO Defense Ministers. On Wednesday and Thursday, ministers will address the Alliance's response to a more challenging world. "We will stress the importance of fair burden-sharing and higher defense spending," he said.

The NATO chief welcomed that defense spending among European Allies and Canada has increased by 3.8 percent in real terms in 2016, higher than expected.  Ministers will also focus on the fight against terrorism, and threats stemming from the Middle East and North Africa.

"During this ministerial, we will also focus on the fight against terrorism, and threats stemming from the Middle East and North Africa. NATO is providing support to the Counter-IS Coalition and working to train partners like Iraq, Jordan and Tunisia. But we can and should do more," he added. - KUNA